Japan declares nuclear no-go zone

As access to nuclear zone is being blocked, residents rush to retrieve their belongings.

21 Apr 2011 09:41 GMT

The Japanese government has imposed a ban on entering an exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex.

The no-go zone extends 20km around the facility, and will be enforced from midnight on Friday (1500GMT on Thursday).

Residents fled the area after an evacuation was ordered on March 12, a day after a 9.0 earthquake and 15-metre tsunami critically damaged the plant's power and cooling systems. Several of them have since returned for short trips to retrieve their belongings.